Joe Williams

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
For 820 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 60% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Joe Williams' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Samsara
Lowest review score: 0 The Divergent Series: Insurgent
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 597 out of 820
  2. Mixed: 156 out of 820
  3. Negative: 67 out of 820
820 movie reviews
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    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    We Have a Pope
    This is rich material that Moretti mines for both superficial absurdity and deep pathos.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
    Lacking beef or sufficient spice, it's nonetheless colorful comfort food.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Dark Shadows
    May be too light for vampire purists or fans of the original show, but fresh blood is just what the doctor ordered.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    The Fairy
    Do yourself and your kids a favor. On the way to multiplex to see "The Avengers," tell them The Fairy is about an all-powerful superheroine. Someday, they'll find the words to thank you.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Joe Williams
    Damsels in Distress
    Damsels in Distress is shockingly tone-deaf. Stillman is still capable of a few amusing quips, but his storytelling is sophomoric.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    The Avengers
    The fiery finale is good enough to leave the legions smiling. But when a movie is expected to lift an entire industry, "good enough" shouldn't be good enough.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    The Hunter
    To keep serious cinema from going extinct, this could be sold as "The Hunger Games" cross-bred with "The Lorax," but it's better and more mature than either of those hit movies.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    Elles
    Elles is provocative company, but it leaves us feeling hustled.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    96 Minutes
    96 Minutes is a mere introduction to Sociology 101, but it's brisk enough to rustle the reading list and keep the conversation alive.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone
    Like a Fishbone show or an LA weather forecast, the dark curtain rises, and there's a promise of more sunshine.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    Chimpanzee
    An eye-opening primer in cross-species similarity. We learn that apes are violent and territorial but also that they are capable of creativity and tenderness.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Marley
    Marley is thus a valuable history project but not a definitive or analytical one. For that, we await a film that's less "One Love" and more "Stir It Up."
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Footnote
    Footnote is faintly comic, and director Joseph Cedar mines dark humor from the humiliations of identity checks and pecking orders.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    The Raid: Redemption
    Built on shaky and blood-soaked ground, but if towering technique is all you want from an action movie, then yippee-ki-yay.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    Bully
    Bully is a good start to a necessary conversation, but its loving voice is likely to be drowned out by haters who hide their own wounded hearts behind Internet pseudonyms and broadcast microphones.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    Chico & Rita
    When a place and its people are this stylish, we can't help but be drawn to them.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Undefeated
    Unlike the benchmark sports documentary "Hoop Dreams," Undefeated doesn't have a deep penetration of poverty and race in its playbook, but it does have enough heart to make substantial forward progress.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    American Reunion
    There's some laughing gas left in the cupboard, but this series may require an infusion of new blood to last until "American Funeral."
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Joe Williams
    Coriolanus
    That action is bloody, but Fiennes' choices as director are unassailably apt and artful. Coriolanus is a triumph.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Joe Williams
    I Kissed a Vampire
    In this flick, the dark side is as bright as a cruise-ship showroom, where the singing and dancing would fit nicely, while the jokes are as dull as Disney sitcom throwaways.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Joe Williams
    Wrath of the Titans
    Considerably better looking than its predecessor, but it's spewing the same old gibberish.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Addiction Incorporated
    While it's satisfying to see fat cats tamed by science and an enraged public, the movie misses the opportunity to sustain the pressure.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    The Hunger Games
    The Hunger Games is dressed as a dark satire of soulless entertainment, but like Katniss' adversaries in the PG-13 hunting scenes, it doesn't have a distinctive identity or go-for-the-throat.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Being Flynn
    He might be guilty of showboating, but De Niro's knockout performance is a declaration that the star of "Raging Bull" isn't ready to hang up his gloves.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Jeff Who Lives at Home
    A high-wire act that could crash if the actors were out of sync, but under this big top, the never-better Segel keeps everyone aloft.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Joe Williams
    W.E.
    It's hard to hate a movie that escorts us to such lovely locales, but instead of marking the territory as her own, Madonna has directed a potentially provocative story like a virgin.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Crazy Horse
    As opposed to the "gentlemen's clubs" in sinful cities like Las Vegas, the Crazy Horse attracts couples.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    21 Jump Street
    He's not in Mark Wahlberg's league, and 21 Jump Street isn't quite as funny as "The Other Guys," but by lampooning himself here, Tatum has bought himself a grace period to grow in.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    We Need to Talk About Kevin
    Refusing to hold our hands, director Lynne Ramsay ("Morvern Callar") pushes far beyond the boundaries of topical drama into the realm of the surreal.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    Declaration of War
    The tonal shifts, the "Amelie"-style voiceover and the punk-retro soundtrack may jar some viewers who expect uninterrupted violins, but Declaration of War is alternative therapy that really works.
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